Recent viewings

[HappyGilmore]

Clerks 2 is great.

[HappyGilmore]

Recently watched:
The Goonies

Steven Spielberg and Richard Donner were involved in this gem. Sean Astin, Josh Brolin and Corey Feldman lead a great cast of kids on the run from a criminal family led by Anne Ramsay. Lots of action, humor, and a great supporting role by Richard Matuzak (I believe) as Sloth.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Serenity" (2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MxRmp_pcEE
	Small | Large

In this feature-film spin off of Joss Whedon's short lived "Firefly" TV series, a crew of space pirates/mercenaries has to protect a young girl with unique powers from some very bad people. Lotsa action and the usual crackling Whedon dialogue.

I'd never seen "Firefly" but now that I've seen this cult flick, I am impressed enough to put the series on my "to check out sometime soon" list.

[ChaosTheory]

ATLAS SHRUGGED PART 1 (2011) -- I was hoping for something hilariously THE ROOM-type bad; alas it's just plain old everyday bad, even putting aside Ayn Rand's horrific philosophies; clunky, dull and amateurish.


SAFE HOUSE (2012) - a CIA desk jockey (Ryan Reynolds) gets tangled up in the escort/pursuit of a master rogue agent (Denzel Washington).  Lukewarm, predictable political thriller, notable mainly for Washington's performance.  You'd do better to rent MAN ON FIRE or MALCOLM X instead.

[fulci420]

A Blade in the Dark - Lamberto Bava's second effort is a solid entry in the Italian Horror genre. A rather basic (and unimportant honestly) plot concerns a musician preparing music for a horror film in production. Staying at a fancy villa in italy everything seems fine until women start vanishing.

This is an enjoyable giallo that showcases Lamberto Bava's abilities. His directing shines in the atmosphere and excellent POV shots of the stalking killer. The plot is slightly less than genius but if that's your focus then you should stay far away from the Italian horror genre is possible. Keep an eye out for the infamous "Bob" from Fulci's film "House by the Cemetary" in a small part.

[dean]

A Blade in the Dark - Lamberto Bava's second effort is a solid entry in the Italian Horror genre. A rather basic (and unimportant honestly) plot concerns a musician preparing music for a horror film in production. Staying at a fancy villa in italy everything seems fine until women start vanishing.

This is an enjoyable giallo that showcases Lamberto Bava's abilities. His directing shines in the atmosphere and excellent POV shots of the stalking killer. The plot is slightly less than genius but if that's your focus then you should stay far away from the Italian horror genre is possible. Keep an eye out for the infamous "Bob" from Fulci's film "House by the Cemetary" in a small part.

That sounds like a version of a film I'm seeing tonight called Berberian Sound Studio:

http://miff.com.au/films/view?film_id=124135

Director Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga, MIFF 09) lifts the curtain on cinematic sound production in this story of hapless audio engineer Gilderoy (Toby Jones, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), who finds himself transplanted from the safety of his garden shed to Italy's cheapest, sleaziest post-production studios to work on a sordid horror film. As the mayhem manufactured for the big screen begins to reflect the world this side of the camera, the exploitative environment of his new job – a huge departure from the nature documentaries he’s used to – begins to take its toll on Gilderoy, sending him into a world of turmoil, and ensuring his grip on reality grows ever more loose.

With a soundtrack by revered UK band Broadcast, Berberian Sound Studio is a nostalgic tribute to the giallo films of the 70s.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Repo Man" (1984)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLGrXGEMOSo
	Small | Large

Quirky, cult '80s comedy from Alex ("Sid and Nancy") Cox stars Emilio Estevez as a punk rocker who takes a job repossessing cars, and gets mixed up with government agents and other assorted freaks while searching for a car that has four dead extraterrestrials in the trunk.

Totally bizarre but entertaining flick with a killer soundtrack that includes Iggy Pop, Suicidal Tendencies, and the Circle Jerks!

[HappyGilmore]

Manos, The Hands of Fate~MST3K version. I can barely make it through their version and it's hilarious.

I dread watching it without the crew.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Apollo 18" (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/v/f3ynpCGm4JI

Faux-documentary style "found footage" horror flick purported to be filmed during a doomed 1974 hush-hush secret mission to the moon, where the astronauts encounter something nasty on the lunar surface and it all ends badly.

Basically a sci-fi twist on the "Blair Witch" formula, this flick started off slow but when it finally started kicking into high gear I actually jumped a couple of times. Better than expected.

[dean]

"Apollo 18" (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/v/f3ynpCGm4JI

Faux-documentary style "found footage" horror flick purported to be filmed during a doomed 1974 hush-hush secret mission to the moon, where the astronauts encounter something nasty on the lunar surface and it all ends badly.

Basically a sci-fi twist on the "Blair Witch" formula, this flick started off slow but when it finally started kicking into high gear I actually jumped a couple of times. Better than expected.

Maybe it was my mindset at the time, but I really couldn't get into this one.  A few cool ideas [the flash in the crater is a nice touch] but really, the rest is pretty forgettable.

[FatFreddysCat]

Maybe it was my mindset at the time, but I really couldn't get into this one.  A few cool ideas [the flash in the crater is a nice touch] but really, the rest is pretty forgettable.

My expectations were pretty low for this cuz I usually don't care for "found footage" movies... I'll probably forget that I even saw it after a few months, but I was entertained for 90 minutes.

[fulci420]

Elephant-So today I decided to check out Gus Van Sant's school shooting movie today. I honestly gave this film a shot, watching with rapt attention despite the lack of anything of substance really happening. This film mostly consists of steadicam shots of people walking through hallways. Occasionally they stop and have uninteresting conversations with each other. That's about all that happens until the shootout scene which features yet more steadicam hallway footage.

I really didn't like this film, especially having seen films that cover the same ground that are just so much more powerful and compelling. Examples of this would by Larry Clark's excellent "Bully". Hell even Uwe Boll's "Heart of America" told a better version of this story.

[JaseSF]

Ma and Pa Kettle At the Fair (1952): Ma and Pa Kettle (Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride) hope that by entering Ma’s homemade jam and home baked bread into the local county fair, they can win enough prize money to send daughter Rosie (Lori Nelson) to college however Ma accidentally enters their old broken down horse Emma into the harness race instead. However Emma may have more fire left in her than the Kettles suspect but can they find that out in time to use it to their advantage?

Percy Kilbride is really amusing at Pa in this one taking his art of borrowing to arguable new heights of achievement and as he works alongside Indian pals Geoduck and Crowbar to try and get Emma race worthy and race ready.  This one does prove more amusing than outright funny although it has a few moments here and there and it does manage to teach a good moral lesson about self-sacrifice for the greater good. A young James Best is also on hand in this one as Rosie’s love interest, Nelson herself a familiar face to some here as well I have no doubt. This is good but not at the level of its predecessors. Still I’d give it *** out of ***** stars.

Ma and Pa Kettle On Vacation (1953): This basically becomes Ma and Pa Kettle, working with undercover G-Men, vs. Evil Foreign Spies as the Kettles go on a Paris, France vacation with their in-laws – the Parkers.

This type of comedy parody was actually somewhat common for comedy teams in the 40s-50s era and this one is arguably one of the funniest examples of it largely because the spies are for the most part played straight and are shown to be capable of murder while Ma and Pa Kettle are their usual selves meaning the spies have no clue and are in no way ready for who they’re dealing with. Funniest bits: Ma takes offense to a French dinner theatre performance in memorable fashion, Pa tries desperately to get the French police’s attention, Pa mistakes “G-Men” for G-Men. Fun movie but pretty similar on some levels to Ma and Pa Kettle Go To Town. Still I’d give this ***1/2 out of ***** stars as it really made me laugh on more than one occasion.

Ma and Pa Kettle At Home (1954): After their son Elwin (Brett Halsey) becomes a contest finalist in a competition where the student has written an essay describing life on the farm, the Kettles move back into their old farmhouse where Ma and Pa hope to spruce up the old rundown farm Elwin exaggeratedly described as modern enough to fool  the visiting contest judges in hopes that Elwin can win the prize scholarship money for college. Ma gets her girls to clean up the farmhouse while Pa and Indian pals Geoduck and Crowbar set out to improve the look of the farm in their own unique (cheaply, shoddily done with lots of borrowing) way.

This is arguably the best of the later Ma and Pa Kettle films teaching a really solid moral about family, community and how to treat one another and have consideration for one’s fellow man. There are some real moving scenes of giving late in the film that are in line with the Christmas theme that eventually turns up here. There’s also some real funny sequences here especially related to the prim and proper city bred contest judge Alphonsus Mannering (Alan Mowbray) and how he relates to life on a rural country farm, the Kettles and even shows his serious lack of knowledge with regards to Indians when Geoduck and Crowbar inevitably turn up. Best and funniest sequences: the Great Indian chase, Mannering loses his soap when he takes a bath and Mannering finding himself sharing a bedroom with a chicken. All in all, I’d give this one **** out of ***** stars.

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974):  An insurance investigator/leader of a auto chop shop car thief operation named Maindrian Pace (H.B. 'Toby' Halicki) takes on a seemingly impossible assignment to steal  48 specific high end cars within five days. However just as he’s about to close the deal, he discovers a yellow 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 codenamed ‘Eleanor’ is actually not insured and he never steals from anyone who doesn’t have insurance so he returns the stolen car and sets out to replace it only to run afoul of the police who’ve received a tip-off leading to one of the greatest car chase sequences in film history, if not the greatest.

While this film is lacking in terms of acting talent and the plot is somewhat hard to follow early on unless one really pays close attention, this delivers the goods so much with the exciting, fast-paced, stunt heavy car chase sequence one doesn’t even care in the end. If you enjoy exciting car chases and car crashes, this is the film for you. Just stick with it and it will deliver. In fact, I think so highly of this film’s car chase climax that I just have to give this **** out of ***** stars.

War of the Planets (AKA: Terrarium) (2005):  A spaceship crew having finally reached the distant planet which was their mission awaken from cryogenic slumber only to find themselves the target of a nasty primitive alien beast who’s got a serious case of the munchies and sees them as food. Also potentially aggressive aliens may be behind all this and may be studying them.

This cheaply made film is horrendously awful yet has some level of “so bad it’s good” appeal. The plot for this one feels somewhat akin to a 1950s B-movie but is in fact a film made in recent times with basically no budget and no real acting talent but with an interesting story idea. The monster is just a guy in a gorilla suit, the aliens guys in cheap masks, the CGI spaceship FX look like they were done on someone’s home computer yet this somehow manages to have some moments of suspense because they wisely show very little of the monster and the aliens. In some ways, this is the modern equivalent of a classic B-Movie yet makes many of those look epic and big budget by comparison. I cannot possibly give this more than *1/2 out of ***** stars yet I feel it is a bad movie film fan must see.  The DVD cover for this is ridiculous making it look like some cool alien rip-off when it fact the monster is just a guy in a gorilla suit.

[FatFreddysCat]

Just watched w/my 9 year old...

"Air Bud: Golden Receiver"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVsaKG_KcDU
	Small | Large

After mastering basketball in the first "Air Bud," the heroic Golden Retriever discovers that that he also has a talent for football in this sequel. Naturally, since this is a Disney movie, he joins his owner's (losing) team and helps them make it to the state playoffs, but some creepy animal thieves are lurking in the wings, hoping to steal Bud and make him the headlining act of their traveling animal circus.

Fun for kids, relatively painless for parents.

...but I'm gonna have to watch something gory and violent later tonight to counteract all the sweetness in this flick!

[FatFreddysCat]

As an antidote to "Air Bud: Golden Receiver"....

"PIRANHA" (1978)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoCKGvVlNYM
	Small | Large

One of my all time favorites. In this classic killer-fish flick from Roger Corman, a horde of hungry piranhas escape from a secret Army testing lab into a Texas river, and immediately begin munching on the local population whilst a skip tracer and the local drunk try to stop them. Nothin' fancy here, just good ole fashioned action packed gory mayhem. This is one of the best "B's" of the '70s in my book.

Fun fact: Steven Spielberg hired director Joe Dante to do "Gremlins" on the strength of his work on this film, which he called "The best Jaws ripoff I've ever seen."